Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1887-03-10
POOH BAH-RATS.

The conscious possessor OF power Is
never weakened by bug-bear stories how
ever frightful in detail or in elimination.
Every few days threats or predictions, OF
startling denouments, are received in
this city which do up Wichitas present and
future in most summary manner These
calamaties are always told upon the author
ity of some great corporation magna'e
whose interests are innimical, or otherwise
given out under the claim that they were
serruptitiously obtained Of authority I'M
doubted. We do not know but that upon
the whole such whispered quotations are
beneficial However that may be, they are
harmless The truth is that it no longer
lies within the power of any corporation,
or possible combination of corporations to
ruin. destroy or even retard the
growth and onward sweep to pre-
eminemce of this city. Could
even the unbounded faith Of her people be
shaken, and distrust take the place OF ex-
ultation, the facts and the circumstances,
the combination of the situation and its en-
vironments, ard which are in no way de-
pendent upon the enterprise or foresight of
man, the things, in short. which made
Wichita in the first place, and which have
forced her 10 the front rank of the old and
wealthy cities of the state, and which still
presents her without a rival, these would
and will just as inevitably make, and as
certainly sustain great city here as that
water seeks its ewn level. or that growth
and increase follows sunshine and summer
showers. Efforts or combinations of ef-
forts, upon the part Of railways, at an
early day, might have built Wich-
tia few miles away from this
exact point or junction of the Great and
Little Arkansas rivers, still the effort would
have been i'll advised and expensive. st.
Louis might have been built at Alton, and
Kansas City might have been built at
Leavenworth, but they were not If all
the railways now reaching us should com
bine TO beat Wichita, they could not do it.
The extra number Of lines which would,
in such an event be constructed, would
simply, in the end, result in that many
added advantages. The first line of rail
way built into this section of the state and
into this great valley, even, was changed
SO as to miss Wichita nearly thirty miles,
but Wichita outstripped every town ever
laid out in the interest Of or by that rail
way.
Wichita is young commercial giant, the
Importance of whose geographical position
is not only appreciated at large, but an in
innate knowledge of which seldom. if ever,
fails to impress every man who has given
political economy the slightest study.
Realty speculations may fail, additions
may become more burthensome than profit
ably, and the live, energetic and far seeing
m en- who control our city's destinies today,
may all be swept away by some sudden and
awfnl calamity, but natures unalterable
fat as seen in the conformation of this vast
agricultural empire, in this almost immcas-
ureable domain of grain and cattle, must
stand with Wichita as the natural center,
as the heart to which and from which all
arteries must lead. The only philosophical
reply, the only logical answer therefore, to
be made to all prognostications of evil
touching Wichita's present or future is that
all sufficient chestnut, "oh, rats